Astralis downs Na’Vi in straight sets for DreamHack Marseille victory

Astralis have emerged as champions at DreamHack Masters Marseille after taking downCIS juggernaut Na’Vi in straight sets the grand finals to close out the $250,000 event held in Marseille, France.

Astralis’s title victory proved that they’re the best team in the game at the moment, winning three playoff best-of-threes in dominant fashion over the likes of FaZe Clan, Fnatic, and Natus Vincere.

Still, Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev, later awarded the MVP title of the tournament, was essentially the biggest factor hindering Astralis from an easy claim of the title home to Denmark.

Although Astralis won map one Nuke vs. Na’Vi very convincingly with a 16-4 scoreline, it hardly paints a complete picture as s1mple top-fragged in the server with 22 kills and a 1.48 HLTV rating, with Astralis holding out as clutch king Andreas “xyp9x” Hojsleth earned a one-vs-three clutch to win the map.

Na’Vi then pushed hard on Inferno, but another Astralis clutch — this time from Lukas “gla1ve” Rossander — brought the Danes back into the game as they won six rounds with one stroke by breaching Na`Vi’s A defence time and time again.

The CIS pushed back for a 9-6 score before the break, and won pistol with a quad from s1mple. They equalized, but when Astralis got their cash set up a very tight defence and did not give Na`Vi the chance to build on the few rounds that were going their way, and hammered the final nail into their opponents’ coffin in a decisive 1v1 from gla1ve.